Bordeaux 2010. Past performance is no guide to future returns?
To buy low and sell high. Is this not the time-honoured investment advice?
The latest in a series of long-running research articles began in the 1980s, published by 3 London Business School (LBS) economists is the latest challenge to the efficient market hypothesis.
This hypothesis states that a given asset’s price reflects all available information, therefore responding only to unpredictable news and events. Price, thus, is the true optimal estimate of value at any given point, making it impossible for investors to predict whether that price will move up or down. At least that is the theory.
Economists Mike Staunton, Elroy Dimson and Paul Marsh have taken a fresh new look at momentum investment, a strategy whereby the top-performing assets of the recent past are bought and held. Starting in 1900 they took the largest stocks on the British market and calculated the returns that would have been made from the top 20 performers over 12 month periods enacting a rebalance of the portfolio each month.
The result; an investment of 1 in 1900 would, by end 2009, be at 2.3m whereas 1 invested in the lowest performing 20 would have returned just 49. Although this approach uses only the top and bottom 5th of the market, the implication here is that such is the performance of the top 5th that it would represent a better investment than a broad-based buy and hold, i.e. efficient market/undervalued strategy.
Liv-ex, awine exchange, applied this momentum approach to fine wine, against the predominant feature of wine investment being to seek value in underrated stock. In other words perhaps, buy high and sell higher again. The results are food for thought
The exchange used the Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables Index, its broadest index covering 24 top-scoring chateaux, taking the top-performing 25% of wines of the previous 12 months as compared to the lowest-performing 25%, starting in June 2000 and re-balancing every year in June. Findings show that a portfolio managed in this way would have brought returns of 390% as compared to 280% for the bottom 25% as per December 2010..
In an efficient market the assumption is that the market is rational. however studies suggest that irrationality may also play a hand whereby investors may be buying stock when they see it move. This raises important issues when considering the momentum effect, as it could help explain where bubbles come from, or why fund managers may place caital in apparently hot inevestments or start-ups with little appearance of any plan.
How could this affect investor decision-making in fine wine buying, is this irrationality playing a part in price formation, in particular with Bordeaux Classed Growths?
So should we just follow the momentum theory? Not quite. With 5% dealer costs and assuming a churn rate of 50% we see that the top 25 chateaux actually yield 270% being almost equal to buying and holding the entire Liv-ex Fine Wine Investables Index and the closest proxy to the efficient market theory
To complicate matters further, as the same report shows, until mid 2008 it was precisely the bottom 25% that would tend to give the best returns. So what has changed? Since the market shock in 2008, a range of new phenomena can be observed, to do with China, with brands over Parker, aggregate demand and momentum. These have signficantly changed the way the wine market behaves. We try to consider these and other factors relevant to wine investment decision-making over the year ahead. Specifically in the context of a possible softening of demand alongside a slowly widening market and another high-priced – high-quality 2010 en primeur campaign.
These issues and the outlook for 2011 will be discussed in upcoming blog pieces
Ditton Wine Traders specialises in the fine winesfrom Bordeaux and equivalent wines fromBurgundyand Italy
May 27, 2011 | Posted by Mark Schuringa
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